Driver Shortage? Misery?

There never has been a driver shortage.
Ive been hearing this since I started driving. Even when the economy tanked the big carriers were still crying about a driver shortage.

 

The only shortage is a lack of people willing to live out of a fiberglass box for weeks on end for what the industry is willing to pay. Throw in all the unpaid labor/waiting, DOT, fighting for parking, E logs, how you're treated by shippers/receivers/dispatch, etc and is there any wonder why companies can't find drivers?

 

To have a GOOD driver able to waltz into and out of the grocery without smashing up everything, running into posts, tearing mirrors and doors off, damaging freight etc etc etc or being late etc. is very valuable.

You will go through MANY drivers in that first year because of the first part of my post here. Many are dismissed rather quickly from preventables etc.

As long you have 50 more coming to orientation each week, who cares how many you go through as long you find that one GOOD driver who is a keeper.

I am a good driver. But it took many years to get to that level partly because I was such a hell on wheels in my time. It's a waste. Considering what was possible if I was good then.

Trucking is not something anyone can do. They used to say 100 people wanna drive a truck. 50 wont qualify for medical issues etc. 20 will try to get through the school and find that there is a problem financially. That leaves 30. Out of that 30 I would imagine 15 or so are still with us after one year. And there are more tractors stored in the corner of the property because you need 85 more drivers.

I think everything is written off against taxes when you spend money to hire someone. And get paid to hire a immigrant to drive that truck. Once the Robot trucks kick in nationally and becomes a new normal, there wont be such a problem anymore trying to find GOOD drivers I would imagine.

If I am such a good driver etc, why am I not back out there? Two reasons. One is the employment verification system. As far as my 30 years, it does not exist anymore on paper. Half the companies are gone there is nothing to call and check. The other half have disposed of the records and there isnt anything to verify. So that's gone. History. The other part is the ever increasing DOT medical screening. You are going to have to really find healthy people who are drug and drink free. I think the Military takes in more people with defects than the industry does...

 

I find it interesting that trucking is an industry with a both a "shortage" of drivers and an incredibly low bar to entry. Think about the fact that almost anyone with a desire to drive can find a way into the profession.

There are some medical restrictions, you can't be a current drug user and only a specified few prior felony convictions are actually disqualifiers. Even a drunk driving conviction in your past isn't a show stopper, unless it was in a commercial vehicle.

So darn near anyone should be able to get in to a truck, right? Well, yes and no. Here's the thing: The easiest way is to jump into the meat grinder that is the mega and the megas have horrendous turnover.

The megas self-insure so they can easily bring on newbies and more readily adapt their hiring standards to their hiring needs. Other companies have to buy more expensive insurance if they need to hire lower on the quality spectrum.

What many new drivers fail to realize is that the reason their dream company won't hire them is because they are too high a risk under the insurance policy the company has. That is why they require experience and clean MVRs for hire.

There are smaller companies that are paying high insurance rates anyway and are more willing to hire new drivers, but the insurance company is calling the shot on what training has to be documented and what minimum standards are acceptable.

At one of the jobs I applied to as a new driver I got a call from the insurance company to ask me a bunch of questions and they approved me if the company would certify that I had been trained on a list of tasks. The packet was a quarter inch thick. The owner declined to do the training, pointing out that the requirements included load securement, bracing and blocking. It was a tanker outfit that had no vans or flatbeds...

He was also the guy who observed that my application was on the top of the stack because I was "the only one who's not a criminal".

Which brings me around to this: It does not matter what industry you are trying to enter, they are looking for a "good employee" not just a driver, carpenter, doctor, etc. If you have a good work history and have shown that you can keep out of trouble you will be higher in the stack than someone who has been doing first person research into the criminal justice system and the various shades of pink used in termination notices. You can be the most awesomest super trucker ever minted by Joe's Trucking School and Massage Parlor, but if you can't be a good employee, or have not yet shown yourself capable of that skill, you may have a very hard time getting a job behind the wheel.

And, finally, this brings to the front the following observation: Trucking is serious business. If you consider the value of the equipment and cargo, the amount of liability the company and driver assume and the environment in which that equipment and driver operate, there is a lot that can go wrong. Deadly wrong. The washout rate doesn't bother me from the perspective of people not cutting it in the profession, but it does trouble me from the perspective of how much risk it adds to driving on our highways and the additional regulatory burdens it causes to be put upon us because of the more exciting ways these drivers washout.

 

Set your bar higher and don't settle for anything less than what your skills are worth!

 

Agreed, I'm only going to finish my year and quit. I had to go with a mega bc I made to much money to get any type of assistance but u couldn't afford to pay for it by myself. I went with Prime, I have five months left and I'm gone.

 

There is a shortage of drivers willing to stay away from home for months and earn $30-40K. When trucking companies start "firing" bad customers, instead of trying to get more business from them, you will know trucking companies are trying to fix the "driver shortage". Trucking companies will sacrifice 20 drivers if it means they get 10 more truck loads from Wal Mart.

 

Well, the average IQ in this industry is pretty low. I'm not entirely putting it down, I know some smart people in this business (myself included), and I know for a fact that other industries have dumb people too, but this one seems to prey on the naive and dumb.

The real suckers are the ones that keep getting burned over and over again and never friggen learn--and trust me, there are a lot of these people.